Interest rates, which have sat at or near historical lows during the past seven years, have led many investors to seek additional yield in the form of credit risk. The recent trend, and its popularity, gives us an opportunity to determine if this risk historically has been rewarded by examining the credit risk premium in…
A few years ago, my wife and I considered buying a boat. We both grew up water-skiing on the lakes here in Utah, and some of my best memories involve being on the water. I was talking about this with my friend Eric, because he has a boat, and he introduced me to his “cost…
“Recency” can be described as the tendency to overweight recent events or trends and ignore the long-term evidence. It’s one of the more common and costly behavioral mistakes that individual investors can make, often leading them to buy high and sell low. Clearly, this represents a major problem, as such behavior is exactly opposite of…
I am not endorsing any political views, but I did note an observation made by Bernie Sanders in the recent Democratic presidential primary debate. He stated that Wall Street’s “business model is greed and fraud.” There’s a lot of data supporting that view. A history of unethical conduct The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) compiled…
The best financial relationships occur when your wealth advisor is interested not just in investing your money, but in investing in your life. Manisha Thakor on helping clients achieve financial clarity, calm and confidence through the process of true wealth management. Financial Calm and Confidence from The BAM ALLIANCE on Vimeo.
Do your New Year’s resolutions for 2016 include crafting a workable budget that you’ll actually want to stick to? Are you stumped about how to make it happen? One answer is an approach that financial advisor Manisha Thakor, director of wealth strategies for women at Buckingham and The BAM Alliance, calls “joy-based budgeting.” First, estimate…
Years ago, my colleagues and I conducted a fairly large-scale research project. We interviewed a bunch of high-income professionals who provided professional services. This group included doctors, dentists and lawyers, and like most of us, they earned money only when they were working. In essence, they traded their time for dollars. Our finding was this:…
How did you spend August 2015? Take a moment to really think about this question, as it can have serious implications for your portfolio in 2016 and beyond. As you may recall, this was the month we were all reminded about what “volatility” means. As the markets reacted to a devaluated yuan and plunging oil…
Today’s investors may have drawn the proverbial “short straw.” From an investment perspective, they are confronting what might be considered a “perfect storm” creating strong head winds against higher expected returns. We’ll begin by discussing the three main factors conspiring against them, then analyze some of the options investors might employ to combat this problem….
I write about investing, not politics. By invoking Donald Trump as an example, please understand that I’m taking no political position. That said, there are some surprising lessons you can learn from Trump about investing. Here are two of them: The power of indexing While the exact amount of Trump’s wealth is subject to debate,…
At some point, we’ve all had a client walk into the office and start a sentence with something like “I heard” or “I read.” This happened pretty regularly after David Swensen wrote a book about his experience managing Yale’s endowment fund. For a while, the guy was everywhere, and more than a few clients wanted…
Previously, we examined three main factors conspiring against investors seeking higher expected returns. These factors can combine to generate a “perfect storm,” at least from an investment perspective, facing today’s investors. We then turned to the four most effective ways that investors can fight these head winds, which, oddly enough, have nothing to do with…
J.B. Heaton, Nick Polson and J.H. Witte recently authored a nice short paper—it’s all of four pages—entitled “Why Indexing Works.” In it, the authors developed a simple stock selection model to explain why active equity fund managers tend to underperform their benchmark index. While most of the academic literature focuses on the efficiency of the…
Many investors today are confronting what could be considered a “perfect storm” that is creating strong head winds against the pursuit of higher expected returns. So far, we have discussed the main factors currently working against investors, as well as some steps they might consider taking to help combat this problem. We will now examine…
Eleven years ago, I needed a new bike. At the time, I rode a lot. I was in a big group of relatively competitive riders, and we’d often put hundreds of miles on our bikes each week. I agonized over what bike to buy, but I kept coming back to one made by a company…